(died 20 July 1901, aged 58), contractor. (A.A. Grant, Angus A. Grant) Often described in contemporary GC-area newspaper reports as a native of GC, and more specifically as a native of the South Branch (area along south branch of the Raisin River). Probably born near Williamstown. Parents: Archibald Grant and his wife Ann McDonald. His father Archibald, of the South Branch, was described in an obituary as “the oldest pioneer of this beautiful section of Glengarry,” and was said to have “died at the home where he had spent so many happy years with his beloved wife and children.” An obituary of his wife Ann speaks of the “most enviable reputation” this couple had “for genuine Highland Scotch hospitality.”
Angus A. Grant was the oldest of the three Grant brothers of the Grant Brothers railway-building firm. (The others were Lewis A. Grant and John R. Grant.) We may suppose that Angus A. Grant worked on his father’s farm in his early years and that his formal education was limited. But however limited his early advantages may have been, he was one of the most successful of all the GC-born contractors. If the impression given by newspaper reports can be taken as correct, he was the leading figure in the Grant brothers firm. His obituary in the Glengarry News said that “When quite a young man he went west, and, like many from Glengarry, fought his way to fame and fortune, by his indomitable will and close application to business. He was one of the most successful contractors on the Pacific coast and leaves a large fortune.”
For the early history of the Grant brothers firm, see the entry for Lewis A. Grant. In a report on John A. Chisholm’s tour of the Canadian and American West, the readers of the Freeholder were told that the existence of Albuquerque, New Mexico was owing “in great measure to the initiative of the Grant Brothers” and John D. Mcdonald as men who built the Santa Fe railroad. (Cornwall Freeholder 7 Oct. 1915) The town of Grants, New Mexico, is named after the Grant brothers. The firm’s camp for railway workers was called Grants’ Camp. The railway station was given the name Grant, and the post office had the same name from 1882 to 1935. In Spanish the name Grantes was used. In 1936 the post office changed the name to Grants.
In 1889, A.A. Grant and an American associate, Gen. James A. Williamson, the president of the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad, bought for $434,076 a tract of 13,316.25 acres in the Moraga Valley, east of Oakland, California. A month later, the articles of incorporation were signed for the Moraga Land Association, a business company intended to develop the Moraga tract. The five “Directors or Trustees” of the corporation included the brothers Angus A. and Lewis A. Grant and their cousin Arthur Burton. Angus’ place of residence was given as Albuquerque, and Lewis’ as Los Angeles. The Moraga development project did not thrive, and in 1899 the land itself was lost when the original vendor foreclosed on the mortgage. In 1905 the charter, presumably worthless by this time, on which the project was based was forfeited for failure to pay the license tax.
Angus A. Grant was married “About 1880” (his obituary Glengarry News) to Joanne T. McMillan, who died in Albuquerque 27 June 1883, a little short of her twenty-third birthday. She was buried at St. Mary’s cemetery, Williamstown. Their daughter Ethel Ann, aged six months, died a few weeks after her mother, and is also commemorated on the tombstone at Williamstown. Angus A. Grant does not appear to have remarried. In 1885 the Cornwall Freeholder reported that Angus A. Grant and Lewis Grant had “arrived in Cornwall on their way to visit friends in Glengarry.” In 1888 Angus A., of Albuquerque, and his secretary Charles Sangster (perhaps of the GC Sangster family), were visiting friends in Cornwall. In 1890, on arrival in Cornwall from New Mexico, Grant was startled to learn that his father had just died. (his father’s obituary) Angus A. Grant died in Los Angeles. The Glengarry News report on the death relates that his son Daniel G. Grant, a Stanford University student, was visiting his grandmother Mrs M. McMillan in Alexandria when he was recalled to the United States by news of his father’s serious illness. The funeral of Angus A. Grant was held in Albuquerque, and presumably he was buried there.
Glengarry News 26 July & 2 Aug. 1901 * Fraser, Gravestones, I, 34, for parents, wife, daughter * obituaries of his mother and father, undated clipping *obituary (not the same as preceding) of his father, probably from Glengarrian 26 Dec. 1890, ASC ii.22 * information from Mother Whiteside Memorial Library, Grants, N. Mex * Bibliography of Glengarry 155 * Moraga’s Pride: Rancho Laguna de los Palos Colorados (Moraga Historical Society, 1987), with map of the Moraga tract * information from Moraga Historical Society * documents, including Articles of Incorporation of the Moraga Land Association, from Moraga Historical Society * Moraga Land Association noticed in GC-area press, Glengarrian 29 Nov. 1889 , DTL Standard Freeholder 24 July 1948 based on Cornwall Freeholder 26 July 1889 * death of Mrs Angus A. Grant , DTL SFH 2 July 1949, based on CF 6 July 1883 *Grant’s visits to Cornwall & GC: as cited, also DTL SFH 22 Dec. 1945 based on CF 25 Dec. 1885, DTL SFH 4 Oct. 1947, based on CF 5 Oct. 1888, GN 28 Oct. 1898 * David F. Myrick, Railroads of Arizona (1975-1984), index. for refs. to Grant brothers